I just got an iTouch and am looking for some good GTalk, Office, and other apps. Despite the annoying inability to find reliable reviews for the apps, every single app I check out is the "first and only app" to do a certain feature... But they all claim that for the same features. Has the app store always been this misleading and difficult to navigate?

Yeah, that seems to be the case at pretty much any digital distribution channel. So as long as an app doesn't have a "Free" version or a "demo" version, I won't buy the paid version until I've read something about it that I trust from a reliable source.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

It's funny how even around here, there aren't any Mac people coming in to defend the app store. It's a sea of garbage with the occasional good app, and there isn't a single reliable review site. At best, there are incomplete reviews, i.e. the reviewer only uses certain features, so he didn't bother to review the rest. I don't wish to line developer pockets with my experimentation, and so far I'm very unimpressed by how the app store works. The iPod is cool enough, but I got it for free, and I can't see spending money on something that's only /possibly/ useful. I'm glad I got to see it firsthand.

They don't have comments or rating stars either? Although i've toyed with the iphone before i didn't play in it's market much. If their isn't a rating or comment system it sounds like they're intentionally hiding the quality of the apps.

Looking for Knowledge wrote:When drunk.....I want to have sex, but find I am more likely to be shot down than when I am sober.

There is a 'stars' system and a comments/review system, but it's not as trustworthy as a dedicated review. Would you trust all of your computer purchases solely on Newegg customer reviews without checking some review sites first?

Depends on the part. For applications i would.*edit For applications i do. Never had a single problem with that before. As long as you have a reasonable bs filter to take out the outliers you end up with a reasonable idea of the quality of what you're getting into with quirks that the many reviewers experienced noted. I'd consider that better than a one person review actually.

And software isn't analogous to hardware in this context.

Looking for Knowledge wrote:When drunk.....I want to have sex, but find I am more likely to be shot down than when I am sober.

I've been to the Best Buy in Decatur (well, Forsyth, right near the hotel I was staying in) and I'm shocked that you wrote that. I mean, yeah, the App Store is rough. But at the BB in Decatur (in June of 2008) I was finding PSP games mixed in with the CDs and video cards mixed into the TVs. I think kids were moving stuff around to get their jollies.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

Yeah, the App Store isn't a very good browsing experience. I tend to use Google; there are a lot of good app review sites. The Unofficial Apple Weblog does a lot, Ars Technica does a few, and there are some pretty well-established iPhone sites as well.

I look for external reviews in addition to dev supplied info. iTeleport for iPad is a good example. It got good reviews and the dev has a web product page in addition to the app store page. The shopping experience was painless.

I'll check out some of those sites, but off the cuff, does anyone have any experience with office suites for iPod (the ones that give you read/write access to .doc, .xls, Google Docs, etc.)? Also, has anyone ever used IM+?

FireGryphon wrote:I'll check out some of those sites, but off the cuff, does anyone have any experience with office suites for iPod (the ones that give you read/write access to .doc, .xls, Google Docs, etc.)? Also, has anyone ever used IM+?

I've used IM+ (still have it but don't IM much any more) - the most obvious fault is the time it takes to load when a notification comes through on my 3G. Obviously if you have a 3GS or 4 that isn't such a big deal

SNM wrote:Why would you pay for an IM app when Meebo is free and good enough?

And I'm pretty sure that Google Docs gives you access to Google Docs on the iPhone, doesn't it?

I'm interested in IM+ because I don't think it requires its own protocol; that is, it just sees if you have an IM and alerts you. I want to use IM functionality in a situation where most chat protocols are blocked, so IM+ looks like it might work.

derFunkenstein wrote:I've been to the Best Buy in Decatur (well, Forsyth, right near the hotel I was staying in) and I'm shocked that you wrote that. I mean, yeah, the App Store is rough. But at the BB in Decatur (in June of 2008) I was finding PSP games mixed in with the CDs and video cards mixed into the TVs. I think kids were moving stuff around to get their jollies.